UK:Danny Alexander reveals 500,000 job cuts in document gaffe

Danny Alexander unintentionally revealed that the coalition expects 500,000 public sector jobs to be lost as a result of the drastic spending cuts when he was photographed holding a private document.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who has been nicknamed Beaker after the Muppets character, was snapped by photographers driving into Whitehall with an open copy of the Comprehensive Spending Review on his lap.

It revealed that the Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast a reduction in public sector workforce numbers of 490,000 by 2014-2015.